Chapter 108
Chapter 108
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: 57. Judgment (4)
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"No. I refuse."
"Why?"
"Do I have to keep watching that creepy bastard, not knowing when he'll show up without a sound?"
Manseok started to say something, but he glanced around and opened his mouth a beat faster.
"Entrust it to someone else."
Manseok's lips curled up.
He said nothing and brushed past me.
Thud.
Hitting my shoulder was his petty way of showing his displeasure, no doubt.
But that guy couldn't do anything to me anyway.
To deal with the angel of death coming tonight or tomorrow, he absolutely needed my help.
While he holed up in the container he used as an office, I rechecked the guns and gear the gangsters had.
Nothing noteworthy stood out.
No flares, no night-vision goggles.
The crude LED lights were our only source of illumination, and most of them were aimed at the man tied to the pole towering atop the container.
His plan—have the owl attack the judge, then trigger the spike trap to kill both the owl and the judge at once, or turn them into minced meat if the judge was already dead—seemed flawless on the surface.
Probably the same as the first trap humanity ever used to catch birds: lure them with bait, and when they bite, the bait bites back.
But we mustn't forget that the enemy we're facing is like us.
I'd told him that more than twice, but this gangster Manseok didn't seem to think deeply about it.
Night fell.
Of all times, during the pitch-black new moon.
Even the sky seemed unwilling to help the gangsters, blanketed in clouds that deepened the already dark night into utter blackness.
Our battlefield was shrouded in darkness too, but at Manseok's gesture, the LED lights blazed on, brightly illuminating the naked man bound to the pole like today's special on display.
Manseok grinned whitely at the writhing man.
"Hey, Judge! Feeling good up there? You like high places, right? Hey! From up there, we all look like ants below you?"
Manseok was hiding in a personal trench bristling with spike stakes, blader in hand.
"I wanted to play with you more, but things are tough for me right now. You know how even dog owners ditch their mutts when times get hard? Same thing, so don't feel too hard done by. I'm struggling too these days."
The judge bound to the pole said nothing.
No, he probably didn't have the energy.
I'd never seen him eat anything today.
Manseok's hatred for him showed no sign of fading.
"Hey, Judge. Pretend it's back in the old days with cops and prosecutors, and this body of mine's on trial. Now that you're up high, you can finally say it, right? What's your verdict? Death penalty? Life imprisonment?!"
His endless sharp mockery went on and on.
But as a hunter, I had to say his chattering wasn't the smartest move.
Back when I, Park Gyu, was still young Park Gyu, my mentor Jang Gi-yeong gave us a unique assignment.
Pick beasts that would be tricky to handle if they mutated, and analyze why in a report.
Naturally, first place went to young Park Gyu.
Under the scorching glare from Lee Sanghun's eyes on the back of my head, Jang Gi-yeong called my name.
"Park Gyu. You're a full-on Fabre!"
That praise from Jang Gi-yeong back then shattered some of my illusions about him.
Fabre, not Seton.
From then on, he seemed a bit off.
Anyway, the animal I researched and got praised for—the eagle owl—is a predator born to hunt.
Its ears, hidden behind those huge eyes, are at different heights on each side.
That difference lets it pinpoint prey's location by sound, even in pitch darkness.
Chattering away like Manseok... well.
Wasn't he more dangerous than the judge served up on a platter?
But the world has a way of surprising you.
"You ignorant human."
The voice burst from an unexpected place.
The judge.
The bound man suddenly spoke.
"You lowly human."
Writhing like a soul on the verge of birth.
"Do you think judges are Joseon-era tyrants? That we ignore law and rules to do whatever we want? Do you know how much anguish I went through trying to detain that guy? The reasons against it were too clear, so I let him go. You didn't know either, did you? That he'd kill your daughter? If you knew, you'd have protected her yourself, right? You didn't, did you?"
It was astonishing.
This man, who looked like his very soul had been broken by endless torment, still had the strength for words like these.
Stripped naked, toyed with and mocked by gangsters, he had clung to his humanity.
But as death loomed, he shed the mask of endurance and boldly revealed his true feelings to this merciless thug.
From the high perch Manseok claimed he loved, no less.
"This, this, this bastard?!"
Manseok looked up at the judge, his face demonic in the LED backlight.
He climbed out of his spike-filled trench and aimed his blader at the judge.
"This fucking prick stays quiet till he's really about to die, then opens his trap?"
Thud.
Manseok dropped the blader to the ground.
A thick smile crept across his demonic face like storm clouds.
"Fold it up."
He waved his hand.
"No hunting today. Yeah, screw the hunt. I'll make sure that bastard never opens his mouth again. Hey! Bring a gun. I'll put a hole in his cheek."
A threat as brutal as they come.
But the judge, past the point of no return, kept spewing words without pause.
"Laws and systems were made for beasts like you. For the lowly beasts who fly into rages and scream for the death penalty every time. That's why there's presumption of innocence, the three-trial system."
"This bastard?!"
Manseok's eyes rolled back.
He scrambled up the ladder like a raging monkey.
Pistol in one hand.
Not just me—all the gangsters watched him climb with grim eyes.
"......"
The wind blew.
From east to west.
I suddenly stared at the horizon.
"?"
Something was there.
Something darker than the darkness.
"Mutation!"
I shouted before my brain could process.
"Mutation!!!"
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
I fired at the black shape.
It swerved sideways like sliding, then vanished into the dark.
"What?!"
Manseok, midway up the ladder, gawked at me.
"Mutation!"
"There's nothing?"
He glanced around, then suddenly smirked as if realizing something, staring down at me coldly.
"You trying to save the judge? Huh? Don't like seeing him die, so you lied?"
"......"
Gangsters really are gangsters.
They have a knack for twisting everything to their own bullshit whims.
"Get lost."
He turned his head and said coldly.
"Before I change my mind. Leave now, and I'll let you live."
"Boss, no. There really was a black thing!"
A gangster I'd worked with spoke up.
"Shut your trap! You punk!"
That's when we saw it.
At the faint edge of the LED curtain lighting the naked judge, a massive black presence had encroached.
"Damn."
Mutation. An owl.
Despite my warning shots, it had come to strike at us humans.
But its target wasn't the judge—it was Manseok.
The loudest one, judged as prey. It lunged with talons that could crush a man like a soda can.
Bang!
One bullet sliced the air.
Non-stop firing.
A survival skill drilled in school and honed hundreds of times in the field.
The round struck the mutation lunging at Manseok square in the body.
"Kieeeek!"
Whoosh!
It hit.
The beast flapped into the sky.
Manseok stared at me in shock.
"Get down quick!"
I gestured for him to come down.
Even a willful gangster listens when his life’s on the line.
"Th-thank you!"
He bowed to me.
Keeping my eyes narrowed on the dark, I replied.
"Not over yet."
"Impressive marksmanship."
Manseok slunk back into his spike trench, mumbling.
"Real hunter-level shooting."
"Be quiet."
Before I finished, a heavy thud came from the opposite side.
"Kiiiiieeeek!!!"
The mutation's cry.
"Gasp!"
A human scream followed.
I turned.
Atop the spike-riddled container, a massive owl gripped with its talons the very stake that had nearly pierced it.
The ace trap had failed.
But it served its purpose.
It saved some diligent nameless gangster, and moreover—
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
It bought enough time for a full magazine's bullets to lodge in that black bulk.
Even a mutation reacts to thirty rounds in its body.
"Kiiiiieee......"
It twisted its head nearly 180 degrees, glaring at me with huge eerie eyes, then plummeted unsteadily below the container.
"We killed it!"
"Got it!"
The gangsters, thrilled, poured out from their spike positions to gawk at the fallen mutation outside.
The women huddled in containers peeked out and followed the gangsters.
Curiosity is irresistible, no matter the dire straits.
"Finally! We killed the owl bastard!"
"With a real hunter here, it didn't stand a chance."
"Boss! Owl's dead! Not moving at all!"
Amid the cheers threatening to wake the dead, Manseok approached me sheepishly.
"......Sorry about earlier."
"No problem."
"Really grateful. Truly. Thank you."
I glanced up at the judge, still hanging alone in all the lights.
"Can't you just let him go easy?"
I knew it was meddlesome.
But even for revenge, this seemed too cruel.
"I get the grudge. But once he's dead, it's over, right?"
"That bastard?"
Manseok scoffed.
"Hasn't changed a bit. Even like this, he thinks he's better than everyone. Rotten to the bone with that elect complex."
"Doesn't look that way to me."
"That's 'cause you don't know him."
Manseok aimed at the judge.
"Too bad."
He grumbled but seemed to accept my request.
Aiming for a clean death.
But his trigger finger hesitated.
"Wanted to see the ugly mug behind that lofty mask......"
He muttered self-mockingly.
"Fucking prick."
He sighed and re-aimed.
Thud!
A sudden boom from beyond the container.
Something heavy slamming the ground.
Followed by a bone-chilling crack.
"Aaaagh!!!"
"O-owl!"
"There's another one!"
No sooner said than a huge black shape soared into the sky.
In the dim LED twilight, its fully spread wings revealed its identity.
"......"
I'd overlooked one thing.
Owls mate for life.
It descended, booming once more.
"Aaaah!"
"Yonggi's dead! Yonggi got it!"
"Kyaaah!!!"
"Run! Aaaah!!!"
Manseok and I aimed, but it didn't fly up again.
Instead, it strode on two legs toward the humans, unleashing merciless revenge on those who harmed its mate—with talons and beak.
Beyond the container, a horrific symphony unfolded.
Wings flapping, talons and beak tearing flesh and snapping bones, terrified screams, the last gasps of the dying—all echoing from behind that steel wall.
Manseok and I locked eyes.
He picked up the blader from the ground and handed it to me.
I nodded and gestured for him to hide somewhere safe.
Right then, a black shape appeared over the container.
Instant aim and fire.
One of the few lessons from school that proved useful in the field.
Guns were my most-handled weapon.
The rest of the hunter gear wasn't much different.
But this shotgun of blades—its trajectory was unpredictable.
Still, to survive, I had to pull the trigger.
Eighteen titanium blades erupted toward the beast leaping at us.
They shredded feathers, wings, body, huge eye, and beak in one strike.
But blades that missed sliced the base of the judge's pole, and one blind blade tore into another container, ricocheted off a corner, and sprayed shards everywhere.
One shard struck Manseok's temple.
"!!!"
He collapsed without a scream, and the pole with the judge toppled onto him.
*
"That shop was good. I had something I wanted to buy."
Defender voiced rare regret about the store.
He didn't know its fate.
I hadn't told him.
"Anyway, that judge. Wonder how he's doing now? Still getting dragged around like a dog by that gangster?"
Who knows.
I could say no.
But from my view, the judge ended up dragged by that gangster after all.
I recall their end.
Manseok lay crushed, immobile, while the judge miraculously survived—the pole's end caught on the opposite container—and the impact loosened his bonds.
The tables turned.
The judge was free; Manseok pinned under the pole—likely with both legs broken—helpless.
Up to there, a perfect win for the judge.
Having earned the whims of fickle gods through superhuman endurance.
But the situation flipped again.
The judge picked up the fallen pistol and approached the helpless Manseok.
His face eerily mirrored Manseok's.
No doubt.
The face Manseok wanted to see.
The hateful, vengeful true face hidden behind the lofty mask.
Manseok's eyes widened slightly as he stared, then suddenly turned to me as if remembering something.
He mouthed silently.
"Don't. Interfere."
His face was no different from the judge's.
Steeped in the madness of hatred.
"......"
Manseok looked up at the judge.
He smiled softly.
"Finally delivering your verdict?"
The judge laughed heartily.
"Death penalty!"
Manseok laughed too.
Even heartier, more relieved than the judge.
When the gunshot erased that laughter, I couldn't tell for a while who had judged whom.
The killer and the killed looked like twins.